Sermon: Holy Trinity - 2020

Sermon: Holy Trinity - 2020

7 June 2020

Text: John 3:1-17 (Isa 6:1-7, Rom 11:33-36)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

“Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity; Let us give glory to Him, for He has shown mercy unto us.”

We like to be in control.  We like to have everything in its place.  We like to understand how things work. 

We like to understand why things are the way they are.  And that is because God made us that way.  He created us in His image, in the image of the Creator (and we can be wonderfully creative), the Redeemer (and we can indeed fix that which is broken and lay down our own lives as a ransom), and the Sanctifier (and we can indeed lead people to holiness and to that which is transcendent).

But we are also fallen.  And so we often display a parody of the divine nature to embrace sin instead of holiness; death instead of life; and the devil instead of the Most Holy Trinity.

And most of the world doesn’t understand.  They accept brokenness as normal, death as natural, and evil as rational self-interest.  They deny the transcendent.  They don’t think about death – and when they do, it is with either utter terror or morbid fascination.  And they mock and hate the very God they claim not to believe in.

The unbelieving world wants a God that they can understand, explain, and control.  But such a god is no God at all. 

Fortunately for us, for those who believe and have been born again by water and the Spirit, we understand things that the world doesn’t, and we are content not to understand the things that the world demands to know.  We Christians, we who confess the catholic faith “whole and undefiled” confess a holy and transcendent God who is “inscrutable” and “unsearchable.”  He is one, and He is three.  He is just and He is merciful.  He is transcendent and He is near.  He is beyond matter and He takes on flesh.  We do not understand, but we confess, we adore, and we worship.

We understand that we do not understand everything.  But we also understand that we understand what He has revealed to us.

In the Divine Service, we find ourselves like Isaiah, brought physically into the Lord’s presence.  In the Holy Eucharist, the messenger of the Lord brings the “burning coal that he had taken… from the altar,” and he touches it to your lips.  The Lord Himself offers it to you: “Take, eat.”  And even as the Lord’s own invitation says, this Supper is “for the forgiveness of sins,” the Lord God Almighty, God in Three Persons, proclaims to you, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” 

How the Holy Sacrament is the body and blood of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, we don’t know.  But we do know that this Jesus, the Word Made Flesh by whom the universe was created, the voice that said “Let there be” at the creation, “and there was,” He who was lifted up like unto the serpent in the wilderness, He, God in the flesh, declares it to be so.  And it is so!  We do not explain; we confess.  We do not demand to know “how,” rather we rejoice in what is. 

“Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity; Let us give glory to Him, for He has shown mercy unto us.”

“For who,” asks the apostle, “who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?”  St. Paul confesses and rejoices in the mystery: “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be glory forever.”

But there are indeed times when, perplexed by our lack of understanding, or beaten down by the crafts and assaults of the devil, we slink to Jesus, to the Word, by night, in the paraphrase of the poet: “Nicodemus came at night so he wouldn’t be seen by men, Saying, ‘Master, tell me why a man must be born again.’”

We want to know “why?” 

There are things that Jesus reveals through the Holy Spirit, and there are things He does not.  What we do know is this: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”  And rather than gaze into the unsearchable will and inscrutable mind of God seeking further elaboration, we confess it.  And so we make disciples, bringing them to this new birth by water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism.  And our Lord even tells us “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”  Do not marvel, dear friends, but rejoice!  Remember your baptism!  Bring disciples to the font, from the very young to the very old, to this new birth, to be given the promises of the Transcendent God who is near! 

Do not try to make sense of this, but rather rejoice in the Gospel, the Good News, that our Triune God loves us: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”

While those who have sought to make sense of the world and of the transcendence that we all know to be true, those who do not confess the catholic faith have invented gods that they could understand, explain and control.  The Greeks and Romans had a goddess of love: Aphrodite in Greek, Venus in Latin.  But this goddess was just a character in a myth.  We Christians, dear friends, we who have the revelation of the Most Holy Trinity, we have not a god of love, but a God who is love.  And we know His love for us in that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Word Made Flesh, dies for us that we might live.  And what’s more, He shares His body and blood with us, He absolves us, He fills us with the proclaimed Good News, and He washes us in Baptism – in the second birth.

And like Isaiah, though we rightly fear God and His mighty power, we know that His power is in His mercy.  For the same Word that said, “Let there be light,” also says, “I forgive you all your sins.”  That same Word invites you to “Take eat” and “Take drink” and bids you to live eternally, rising from your tomb, on the Last Day, the Day of Resurrection.

For the Holy Trinity isn’t some obscure doctrine that dead theologians debated in a dusty, irrelevant past, rather the Holy Trinity is our God, here and now, who is love: who creates us, redeems us, and sanctifies us.  He shows mercy to us.  He forgives us.  He gives us life that never ends.  And with St. Patrick, the missionary bishop of Ireland, we do not merely draw theological insights from the Trinity, but rather confess, love, adore, and praise “the Three in One and One in Three.”  We bind the Holy Trinity unto ourselves “by invocation of the same.”  In confessing the Holy Trinity, we bind unto ourselves Christ’s incarnation, baptism, crucifixion, and His “bursting from the spiced tomb.”  His “hand to guide, His shield to ward, the Word of God to give me speech, His heavenly host to be my guard.”

And in binding ourselves thus, we array ourselves “against the demon snares of sin… the hostile foes that mar my course.”

With St. Patrick and all the saints, with the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant, we bind unto ourselves the name of the Holy Trinity, “of whom all nature has creation, Eternal Father, Spirit, Word, Praise to the Lord of my salvation; salvation is of Christ the Lord.”

Let us rejoice in this salvation, dear brothers and sisters, in the cross, in our second birth, in the glory of the revelation of the Most Holy Trinity, in His transcendence and in His closeness, in the Word, in Holy Baptism, in the Sacrament of the Altar.  For God is in control.  God has everything in its place.  God understands how things work.  Indeed, let us joyfully and eternally sing and pray:

“Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity; Let us give glory to Him, for He has shown mercy unto us.” Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Pentecost - 2020

31 May 2020

Text: John 14:23-31 (Gen 11:1-9, Acts 2:1-21)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

“Diversity is our strength.”

Have you heard this before?  Sometimes it’s true, and sometimes it isn’t.  A marriage between a man and a woman brings the diverse strengths of the two sexes into the life of a couple, allowing for the best of both worlds.  A car repair shop benefits by a diverse level of expertise: a mechanic who really knows brakes, another who is an expert in engines, and someone else who specializes in transmissions.  This allows for cooperation and collaboration.

But in the case of the Tower of Babel, in which the people were cooperating and collaborating to defy God’s command to disperse over the earth and repopulate the planet, their strength was not in their diversity, but in their unity.  For “they all [had] one language.”  This unity allowed them to stay in one spot and build a tower to challenge God’s authority over them.  And so, in order to thwart their rebellion and save them from their sinful desire, the Lord gave them diversity of languages, and their project came to a halt.  The people divided along the lines of tribe and tongue.  And this diversity brought division, hatred, and warfare. 

The diversity of languages became a curse.  

And even though almost everyone in America speaks the same language today, this legacy of tribalism and division lives on.

When the Word took flesh and dwelt among us, He came to save the entire world; people of every tribe and tongue.  Jesus did not come only for the people who spoke Hebrew and who worshiped in the temple, but rather He came to offer salvation to all, to spread the Gospel that there is one God in three persons, and that He, the Son, offered Himself as a ransom for the life of the world, and that anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved, and that the Church should make disciples of all nations through baptism and preaching.

After our Lord rose from the dead, He commissioned the apostles to do just that: to make disciples, baptizing and preaching.  But how are they to preach to all nations given the diversity of languages?  How to make disciples of all nations when each nation has its own national language?

Even among the Jews, who after our Lord’s ascension into heaven, came to Jerusalem for the Pentecost holiday, there was a diversity of tribes and tongues: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judeans, Cappadocians, and more.  And this is just the Jewish population.  The Roman Empire had many local languages and dialects.  How to preach the Word to peoples of a diversity of words?  How to overcome the curse of sin to a people cursed with a diversity of tongues?

Our Lord had been promising the coming of a Helper, the Holy Spirit, who would guide all people to the truth.  The Holy Spirit “calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies” the whole Christian Church on earth, people of every tribe and tongue.  And so the curse of Babel becomes the gift of tongues, as the apostles are given the gift of the Holy Spirit to preach and teach in languages that they have never studied.  

“And when the day of Pentecost arrived,” the apostles “were all together in one place.”  And it was then and there that the Helper came, amid the sound of a “mighty rushing wind.”  And what appeared to be flames appeared to land on each apostle.  “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

And as the Spirit-filled preachers of the Gospel proclaimed the cross and resurrection of Jesus, their hearers, though cursed with a diversity of languages, each heard the Good News in their own tongues.  It was a marvel, a miracle, and the Gospel was unstoppable.  “And all were amazed and perplexed.”  They asked the question that every student of the Catechism has memorized: “What does this mean?”  And there were also mockers who accused the apostles of being drunk.

Peter stood and “lifted up his voice and addressed them.”  He argued that it was too early in the day for them to be drunk.  Rather they were filled with the Spirit, the Helper, who cut through the diversity of languages by means of a miracle, and faith came by hearing that day, hearing the word of Christ proclaimed by the apostles.  And because of their preaching, dear friends, it indeed came to pass that “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

This Gospel spread across the globe in every known language, and would throughout the centuries be proclaimed in languages that didn’t even exist at this glorious Pentecost when the Helper came to the Church.  And one day, and hopefully soon, our Lord will return, the “day of the Lord” the “great and magnificent day” revealed by “wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below.” 

But what about now, dear friends, as we continue to “make disciples of all nations” by baptizing and preaching?  What about now as we spread throughout the world bringing the gift of Word and Sacrament to sinners seeking salvation and life?  What about now in the face of divisions and hatreds and riots?  The Church proclaims the Gospel of Jesus to one and all.  And through the Holy Spirit, Jesus will deliver the gift of “peace.”  “Peace,” He says, “I leave with you; My peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”  And this Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is empowered to go to every corner of the planet because of the “Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send” - whom He has sent - in Jesus’ name.  

The curse of the divisions of diversity are overcome by the Helper, the Holy Spirit, who guides us to the truth of our Lord, His cross, and the Gospel of forgiveness, life, and salvation, of the good news that Christ is risen, and so shall we, of the prophesy that is to come of the new heavens and the new earth, recreated in perfection, where we will live in the flesh for eternity!

And we see true diversity in the Book of Revelation, where the saints “from all tribes and peoples and languages” are standing before the throne of the Lamb, “clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”  And with one voice, they cry out in unity, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

And, dear friends, it is the Holy Spirit who guides us to the Lamb and to the throne of God the Father.  It is the Holy Spirit who breaks down the barriers between diverse peoples and brings them to the unity of faith and the eternal peace of Christ Jesus.  It is only then that diversity becomes our strength in the unity of our confession of the Most Holy Trinity.

It is fitting that we worship and offer praise to God the Holy Spirit, and to pray to Him in the words of the ancient hymn:

Teach us to know the Father, Son,

And You, from both, as Three in One

That we Your name may ever bless

And in our lives the truth confess.

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Exaudi (Easter 7) - 2020

24 May 2020

Text: John 15:26-16:4

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

How do we know that something is true?  We live in an age of deep fakes and fake news.  We receive messages trying to con us out of our bank information.  We get phone calls from guys with heavy Indian accents who claim to be from the IRS.  We are lied to all the time. 

Even Pontius Pilate, acting as the judge in the case of Rome vs. Jesus, asked “What is truth?”  Our Lord did not answer his question.  But elsewhere, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” 

In our Gospel of two weeks ago, we heard our Lord speak of the coming of the Helper, the Spirit of truth, whom Jesus identifies as the Holy Spirit who comes “to guide [us] into all truth.”

And so, at least regarding matters of faith, we know what is true based on the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  And in today’s Gospel, Jesus said, “When the Helper comes… He will bear witness about Me.”

The Holy Spirit leads us to Jesus, teaches us who Jesus is, guides us into the true narrative of Jesus, and opens our hearts to receive Jesus.  This Holy Spirit is the Helper that the Father and the Son sent upon the Church at Pentecost, which we will commemorate next week.  And at Pentecost, the disciples, who were formerly unsure of themselves, will boldly proclaim Jesus to a world that hates them.  They will be courageous, and they will unleash the force of the Word of God onto a world that has no idea what is coming.  

If Jesus had left us to ourselves, like orphans, we would have to fend for ourselves to determine the truth about Jesus.  But He did not leave us as orphans; He sent the Helper.  The Helper “calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.”

In other words, the Holy Spirit creates the Church, brings you into the Church, and keeps you in the Church.  For the Church is where you find Jesus: proclaimed, in and from the Scriptures, Jesus: placed upon you in Holy Baptism; Jesus: given to you in His body and blood.  The Church is indeed where you come to Jesus: who forgives you your sins, gives you the gift of eternal life, and shepherds you to keep you in the one true faith.

The one true faith is the faith of Jesus Christ.  That is, the Christian faith.

And this term “one true faith” is offensive to many.  It means that Islam and Buddhism, Hinduism and Paganism – indeed all religions other than Christianity – are wrong.  By definition, dear friends, truth is exclusive.  If Jesus is the truth, if Jesus teaches the truth, if the Word of Jesus is the truth, if the apostles and their successors proclaim the truth, if your salvation by grace alone through faith alone as the Scriptures teach is the truth – then everyone and everything else is wrong.  There is only one truth.  2+2=4.  It never equals 3 or 5.  There are an infinite number of possible answers to the question, but only one answer is correct.  

And that is who Jesus is: the only right answer.  We know this because the Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures to be written, the Holy Spirit guides you to the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit enlightens you to understand the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit strengthens you to believe the Scriptures.

The Holy Spirit was placed upon you at your Holy Baptism.  The Holy Spirit is a gift, and He is the Helper.  Do you need help?  Do you ever struggle with figuring out what is true?  Do you desire to be taught the truth?  Do you want to truly know Jesus?  Then you need the Helper to guide you.

Do you want to be strengthened for those times when the rug is pulled out from under you?  Then you need to allow the Spirit to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify you.  

Dear brothers and sisters, no life is immune from trouble.  And in fact, as the days get darker, as times get shorter, we will face persecution.  “They will put you out of the synagogues,” says our Lord.  The early Christians were faced with enemies who tried to destroy them.  And the persecutions of Christians didn’t stop there.  Various Roman emperors tried to destroy the Church.  And things are worse today than they were in those early centuries.  “Indeed,” says our Lord, “the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.”  More Christians are being persecuted by Muslims who believe their god rewards them for killing us than even in the days of the Roman emperors.

And even our secular world hates the Church and seeks to separate individual Christians from their God-given rights.  In many places around the world and even in our own country, Christians are seen as enemies of the people and haters of mankind (just as they often were in ancient Rome).  We are seen as backward and stupid.  We are seen as hateful and ignorant.  We are seen as dangerous and deviant.  And why?

Because we confess and preach the truth about Jesus.  Jesus is God in the flesh who was born of a virgin.  He is perfect and kept the law flawlessly for us.  He was crucified on trumped-up charges, but offered up His own blood as a sacrifice for the life of the world.  He makes atonement for humanity with God, and offers forgiveness, life, and salvation to all.  

But how are you called to believe in Jesus, to know what is true, to hold an unswerving faith in the face even of persecution?  The Holy Spirit, the Helper, the one whom Jesus sends to guide you.  It is the Holy Spirit, given to you at baptism, who sustains you in the faith by constantly pointing you to Jesus.  It is the Spirit who draws you to the Church, where you find forgiveness in the midst of sin; life in the midst of death; and salvation in the midst of the lies of the devil.

Come to the Church, dear friends: to the font, where you find new birth; to the pulpit, where Jesus tells you the truth by means of the Spirit; to the altar, where you are literally fed and medicated with the True Word of God that you can eat and drink.  The Divine Service is not a hobby or a way to kill time.  It is dialysis for the soul, it is a vaccination against the devil, it is chemotherapy for sin, and it is our Good Physician’s prescription for eternal life.  It is here that you find healing and peace.

Dear friends, we have the cure for death.  And we know it is true, because the Helper – the one who created the Church – guides us into all truth, testifies regarding Jesus, and moves us to where we need to be.  And this, dear brothers and sisters, is where we need to be!

This is the Gospel, the good news that in spite of your sins and failures, you are God’s beloved who placed His indelible mark on you at baptism.  He will never forsake you, but you can certainly starve yourself into spiritual death by refusing to be fed.

Our Lord said, “I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.”  You will need the Spirit’s guidance to keep you in the faith, especially in times of trouble, of sorrow, and of the attacks of the world, the devil, and our sinful flesh.  

Receive the Word of God, and through that Word, receive the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus says, “will bear witness about [Him.]” And thanks to this Helper, we can say: “This is most certainly true.”  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

Amen.

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday after Easter 6 – 2020

19 May 2020

Text: Luke 16:1-18

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

We have many titles for our Lord Jesus Christ.  One that I have never heard used, but would be appropriate is “raconteur.”  Our Lord is a “raconteur.”  This is a French word that means “storyteller,” but one who is a true wordsmith who weaves wisdom and humor together to hold our attention.  Jesus is the ultimate raconteur, the very Word by whom all things were made.  To teach us, He spoke somewhere around 40 parables.  Some are one-liners, and others are completely developed short stories.

Jesus knows that storytelling is a way to reach people’s hearts with the truths of the kingdom.  

The Parable of the Dishonest Manager is a great example.  In this story, the hero is really a kind of anti-hero: a crook, a thief, a weaselly sort of fellow who is only concerned with saving his own skin.  Such a strange character to teach us how to be a good Christian!  Jesus the raconteur is also a fan of irony. 

The dishonest manager, when he knows that he is being fired, looks for ways to use the tools at his disposal to find a soft landing.  And so he cancels debts that he has no right to do, rewriting contracts for his benefactors.  And strangely enough, Jesus praises this character – not for his dishonesty, but rather for his “shrewdness.”  To be shrewd means being able to look at a situation and really know what’s going on, to be able to make wise judgments.

And the point of the story is: “the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”  In other words, unbelievers know the score, they know what they want, and they work hard to achieve it.  We are saved by grace alone, but how we live out that life of grace and bring the good news to others is where we Christians need to be as shrewd as the unbelievers.  We need to be willing to carry out our vocations as Christians in a way that is as clever as our dishonest manager – without, of course, the dishonesty.

Or as our Lord said elsewhere, we need to be as wise as serpents, and as innocent as doves.  We need to make money serve us, and avoid the temptation for us to serve money.  For we cannot have two masters.  So let us harness the power of this world in whatever way that we can for the sake of the kingdom.

And let us listen to Jesus our raconteur, the one who actually tears up our debts, our Benefactor who rewrites the contract in His blood.  Let us take to heart all of his instructions for life in the kingdom in which we live and serve by grace, even unto eternity.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday after Easter 5 – 2020

12 May 2020

Text: Luke 12:13-34

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Our Lord’s Parable of the Rich Fool is a bit of a paradox.

For there are many passages of Scripture that implore us to be wise and save money for a rainy day.  By saving money, we prepare for the lean times, like when an unexpected pandemic or injury makes it impossible to work for a while.  Without pondering our Lord’s parable, we may conclude that saving money is in and of itself evil.

But what does our Lord actually say is the problem?  It is “the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”  For notice the attitude of our “rich fool.”  After tearing down his barns to build bigger ones, he then undoes his diligence by squandering his abundance: “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”  Of course, as the preacher in Ecclesiastes teaches us, there is a time for relaxing, for eating, for drinking, and for being merry.  But there is also a time for industry, for fasting, for abstinence, and for being serious.  There is also a time for charity and generosity, a time for looking to the needs of others.

We do not see this in our “rich fool.”  His whole life is focused on himself, his creature comforts, and his pleasure.  His life is one of narcissism and hedonism.  He is indeed “not rich toward God,” as he has no concern for the spiritual.  He is a materialist in the true sense of the world, a believer that the only things that matter are material, things of this world, matter that can be measured.

But he is a fool, because there is more to life than the material.  There is indeed the looming reality that our souls will be required of us by God.  It may even be “this night.”  And when we die, our material possessions mean nothing.  We will not be judged by how many toys we have, by how much money we have accumulated, or how big our barns and houses are.  And so we must repent of the sin of laying up treasure for our pleasure, but not being “rich toward God.”

What does it mean to be “rich toward God”?  It means not only supporting our church and looking out for the poor with our wealth, it also means living in the reality that we are not just bodies, but souls; that we are indeed moving toward a new heaven and a new earth, in which all of the material of this fallen world will pass away.  And so our life in Christ – in which the material of water and bread and wine bear the Word of God and bring us to forgiveness, life, and salvation – is our central motivator.  In such a life well lived, love of God and of neighbor augments a healthy love of self, unlike our “rich fool”, who only loved himself.

Instead of a rich fool feeding our own desires, let us strive to be wise, redeemed by grace to be rich toward God and a blessing to our neighbors!  “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Jubilate (Easter 5) - 2020

10 May 2020

Text: John 16:5-15

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Jesus is preparing the disciples for His ascension into heaven.  They will then have to lead the Church under our Lord’s remote authority.  He will remain with them in Word and Sacrament, but they will be the ones in charge, having been delegated authority by our Lord Himself.

But Jesus tells them that the Helper, the Holy Spirit who will come to them, will guide them.  

And so we see Jesus, the Son, going to the Father, and the Father and the Son sending the Spirit.  And this, dear friends, is the name into which we are baptized.  The Holy Spirit seals us with the blood of Christ, calls us by the Gospel, enlightens us with His gifts, and sanctifies and keeps us in the one true faith.

Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the “Spirit of truth,” who guides us “into all the truth” because He speaks with authority delegated from the Father and the Son.

But to the world, the Spirit is not a Helper, because He convicts the world, as our Lord says, concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.  Sin, because of their unbelief; righteousness, because Jesus has left the world; and judgment because Satan is judged, having been judged by Christ at the cross.

The Spirit speaks through the Scriptures, dear friends.  The Spirit enlightens us to understand and take the Scriptures to heart.  But the world hates, mocks, and distorts the Word of God.  To the world, the Holy Spirit is not a Helper at all.

But to you, dear brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit “calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies you,” bringing you here, to the Church, to Jesus, to the Word and Sacraments.  The Holy Spirit kindles your faith. 

The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus.  He “will take what is [His] and declare it to you.”  As the Lord says, “all that the Father has is mine.”  And all that is the Son’s is yours, dear friends.  That means His righteousness, His life, His communion with the Father, His kingdom.  All these are yours, and remain yours for eternity! 

No matter what struggles we all have in this mortal life and this fallen world, whatever unique challenges we face in this generation, the Holy Spirit remains with the Church, glorifying Christ and doing the will of the Father, even to the end of the age.  This is the work of the Helper, the Spirit of Truth.  

Shine in our hearts, O Spirit, precious light;

Teach us Jesus Christ to know aright

That we may abide in the Lord who bought us,

Till to our true home He has brought us. Lord, have mercy. 

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Facebook will not allow this to be shared...

... so share my blogpost URL instead.  I don't think their army of AI bots is clever enough to figure out that I have embedded the piece they won't allow to have a share button here.

This is a slideshow by Robert Kennedy, Jr. regarding the very open goals of Bill Gates, the gazillionare technocrat with a Messiah complex who thinks there are too many humans on the planet.  He wants to be your lord and savior.

Again, here is the link.  Maybe you should be able to make up your own mind.

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday after Easter 4 – 2020

5 May 2020

Text: Lev 10:1-20

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Nadab and Abihu were sons of Aaron.  The ministered in the tabernacle before the Lord.  And for those who think worship is an “anything goes” kind of thing, the harsh lesson of Nadab and Abihu should give pause.  God established a particular way of burning incense before the Lord.  Nadab and Abihu chose to do things their own way, and “offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.”  As a result, they lost their lives.  The Old Testament priesthood was given specific instructions regarding worship.  The Lord’s preferences – not their own, nor the preferences of the people – determined how God would be worshiped in His holy sanctuary.

Of course, today there is no tabernacle or temple, no Aaronic priesthood, no blood sacrifices, no orders concerning incense, and no one-size-fits-all rules for rubrics in Christian worship.  And yet, one thing did not change between the Old and New Covenants: authority.  

Jesus did not ordain every Christian to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing… and teaching.”  He called those particular disciples whom he “sent” (Greek: “apostello”) into the preaching vocation.  And just as Aaron and the Old Testament priests who followed him were ordained by the laying on of hands, we see the same pattern in the New Testament, as Paul speaks of a similar laying on of hands upon Timothy and Titus, as they were ordained into the pastoral ministry, given authority, and sent.

Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” before He delegated His authority to baptize and preach to the sent ones (apostles).  Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you,” and He breathed on these men whom He sent, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” 

In this pandemic, we are hearing stories of lay people taking bread and wine and saying the words of institution over them, thinking that they are celebrating the Lord’s Supper.  This is the spirit of Nadab and Abihu.  For as St. Paul says that belief comes by hearing, and hearing comes from “someone preaching,” he then asks, “And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”  Jesus does not send everyone into the ministry of Word and Sacrament, just as God did not authorize Nadab and Abihu to conduct worship apart from His institution.

Authority is important.  Parents have authority over only their own children.  Legislators have authority only over their own jurisdictions.  Police only have the authority granted to them by the law.  And the Lord works through various callings and vocations in both church and society.  Pastors are men under authority.  And so are lay people.  We are all servants of our Lord Jesus Christ in our own various callings.

Unless we are called and sent into the healing vocation, we must not practice medicine.  By the Lord’s calling, we are authorized to “be fruitful and multiply” only with our spouse.  If we have the calling and the authority to preach and administer sacraments, if we have been sent to do so, we must do so.  And if not, we must not.  Let us thank God for sending people into various vocations through which He works to give us our daily bread and sustain us even to everlasting life!  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Jubilate (Easter 4) - 2020

3 May 2020

Text: John 16:5-15

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Our Lord is preparing His disciples for His cross.  For in the “little while” between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, they will see Him no longer.  They are confused, but seem afraid to ask for clarification.  Jesus explains this coming period, this “little while” as a kind of cross that the disciples will themselves bear.  After all, to be a disciple of Jesus is to take up our own crosses and to follow Him.

So our Lord explains what it means to be a Christian in this fallen world: “You will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.”  For we Christians are seen as the enemies of the world.  We do not join the world in their worship of false gods.  We do not conform to the world’s standards of morality.  We are “in the world,” as our Lord says, but we are not “of the world.”  We are always strangers and aliens in this mortal life.

And so when we suffer, the world is glad.  It is a mark of the fallenness of our world and the nature of sin.  But Jesus tells us that our “sorrow will turn into joy.”  For the torments of this fallen world – whether they be this pandemic, anxiety over the future, other health issues, family problems, financial woes, our own sinful nature, mourning the death of loved ones, or even pondering our own mortality – are all slated for destruction.  And just as surely as the sun re-emerges from the darkness, this ‘little while” of mourning, of sorrow, of the feeling of isolation – will come to a sudden end, just as abruptly as the risen Lord burst into the locked room to appear to the no-longer-sorrowful disciples on that first Easter!

Jesus compares our suffering in this life to a woman’s labor pains.  Once they are finished, something magnificent and sublime overcomes even the memory of sorrow.  And this is what eternity will be for us, dear friends.  But until that time, we must bear the cross.  But even then, we rejoice, because the crosses we bear are nothing compared to the cross our Lord bore for us.  And by His cross, we have the promise of eternal joy – the joy that comes after this “little while” of sorrow.

So no matter how perplexing and even depressing things become in this life, remember the Lord’s promise: “So also you will have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no-one will take your joy from you.”  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday after Easter 3 – 2020

28 April 2020

Text: Ex 34:1-28

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

After the dreadful golden calf incident, God had mercy on His people.  He renewed the covenant.  He wrote replacement tablets of the Law.  He repeated the promise to drive out the enemies of the people from the Promised Land.  But He also called upon His people to once more “observe what I command you this day….  Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst.” 

The Lord knows that His people are easily ensnared by idolatry.  And this is the First Commandment.  For God says, “You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal.”

So we should be in the clear, right?  After all, I doubt that very many Christians have little metal idols that they pray to.  So we must be good on the First Commandment.  Well, the forms of our idols have changed, but we still break the First Commandment.  As we recite in our catechism, “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”  This is what it means to repent of idolatry.

But we have our idols.  We Americans put celebrities on a pedestal.  We follow their every move, watch their every movie, listen to their every song.  Our celebrities tell us how to think, how to vote, how to pray, and how to interpret Scripture.  They define marriage for us.  They tell us which lives matter and which do not.  And we invite them into our homes via TV.  The program “American Idol,” bears that name precisely because we idolize celebrities.

Our new gods consist of singers and performers and actors and athletes.  Our stadiums are full, while our churches are empty.  At least they used to be before we had occasion to put things into perspective about what is important because of this pandemic.  Our universities spend millions on arenas while getting rid of important classes.  Our schools teach radical totalitarian politics while denigrating God’s Word.  Even Christian colleges – including those run by the LCMS – have allowed clubs dedicated to mocking and breaking the Sixth Commandment, as well as running a Department of Gender Studies that teaches anthropology that is contrary to God’s Word.  We are like the Israelites with their golden calf.

We need to repent of our idolatry.  We need to appreciate what Christ has done, does, and will continue to do for us – even unto eternity.  And it is much more than an athlete or singer.  We need to reorient our time to the Word of God and prayer, and when we are able to return to normalcy, we need to worship God “above all things” in the Divine Service.  And the Good News is that our true God, the Lord, is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness… forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”  He will fight our enemies for us.  He offers us His forgiving blood as a free gift.  He has indeed made a covenant with us, and He is faithful! 

Let us joyfully “fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Misericordias Domini (Easter 3) - 2020

26 April 2020

Text: John 10:11-16

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

As much as a hired hand may be a good worker, nobody really takes care of a business the way the owner does.  A good owner opens in the morning and stays late.  Good owners may not even collect a paycheck for many years, and often don’t take a day off or even a vacation.  The owner knows that if the business fails, he fails.  The owner bears the burden of knowing that people depend on him.

A hired hand – even a really reliable worker – just doesn’t have to think about such things.

Jesus describes Himself as “the Good Shepherd” who “lays down His life for the sheep.”  Jesus is so invested in us, His creatures, His beloved people, that is not just willing to die for us in a theoretical way, but Jesus specifically comes to our fallen world for that very purpose, knowing that this, His destiny, is a cross, upon which He will die, but by which the devil will be conquered and creation redeemed.

He is the Good Shepherd!  He is no hired hand who “sees the wolf coming” and runs away.  No indeed!  The Good Shepherd sees the wolf coming, and He engages the wolf in mortal combat.  And the Good Shepherd knows that He wins – He protects the sheep, He slaughters the wolf – by dying.  

That, dear friends, is the love that God has for us, and He is not a mere hireling.  Jesus is God in the flesh: the Creator, the Word who dwells among us, the Bridegroom who sheds His blood for the sake of His beloved bride.  

By His stripes, we are healed.  By His blood, we are forgiven.  By His Word, we are made new.  By His will, we are redeemed.  By His love, we are given everlasting life!

Jesus is no hired hand.  He will never flee in the face of evil.  He fights for you, dies for you, rises for you, and is now present in the Sacrament for you!

Let us indeed listen to His voice.  Let us, His one flock, joyfully listen to our one Shepherd: our Good Shepherd.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.